Daisy Wheel Printers

The daisy wheel printer had its heyday back in the 1980’s. It was a type of printer for the computer that was used when someone wanted to create a letter that was higher quality than the output of a dot matrix. Printers with a daisy wheel were often compared with some typewriters that operated in a similar way.

Daisy wheel printers used a small wheel that seemed similar to a daisy. Each daisy “pedal” on this wheel has a letter on it that was slightly raised. When the daisy wheel printers turned its wheel, it was to line up the letter so that it could strike the paper through an ink ribbon and imprint it with the letter image. Its technology was similar to that of a typewriter. These wheels on the daisy wheel printers were either made of a sturdy plastic or metal.

The quality of the lettering from these daisy-wheel printers was very similar to that of typewriters. As the dot matrix became more popular, you could find more and more used daisy wheel printers around. Then as technology advanced, what was once considered as a quality daisy wheel printer went by the wayside as the inkjets and laser printers came onto the scene. As these new technologies were being introduced, you could find more and more discount daisy wheel printers and even prices that were the cheapest daisy wheel printers ever were.

The daisy wheel printers were popular in the early 1980’s simply because that the daisy wheels could be changed out. Each daisy wheel was a different font so you could change the look of a particular document. Back in the day, these daisy wheel printers were expensive, costing several thousand dollars. Of course, as the new technology came about, you saw the prices plummet until they were bumped from the market as being obsolete.

Are there still daisy wheel printers out there today? You can probably find them in a dark corner of someone’s attic. However, unless you shopped an antique computer store or junkyard of computer printer parts, chances are that you would never be able to fix any daisy wheel printers these days. They would probably make a really cool museum display these days.